33-34

''...Please go and help those that are still in the cells.'' I say to Adam, who immediately orders most of our team to release the slaves.

Turning to the man on the floor, I can see that he has already lost consciousness, likely due to the shock earlier.

''...Let's take him back first.'' Liana sighs.

''Mhmm.'' Emy nods.

''Alright, let's clean up the way out first.'' I say, turning to the door in which we entered earlier, most likely the guards are alerted because of the unconscious people up there.

''Ah, can you make sure this guy doesn't go anywhere else?'' I tell the only S.D. member left besides us.

''Understood, Your Highness, please be careful.''

''Thanks.'' I reply. ''Let's go, Emy, Liana.''

As I've thought, guards are virtually everywhere up here. Everyone is panicking, it seems like.

''Hey! The intruders are here, apprehend them!'' One of the guards shouts.

Well, we can't really use guns here, so let's just knock them all out.

After sorting out the situation above the basement, Adam comes to me with a report.

''Your Highness, there's a total of 11 slaves, of which 2 of them are our people.''

''Alright. How are their injuries?''

''Most of them are pretty badly injured, Your Highness, what do you think we should do?''

''...Let's get them treated first, we have a healer, right?''

''We do, at the secret base, Your Highness.''

''Let's get all of them to the base, then.''

''Understood.'' Adam excuses himself.

''...''

Most of the rescued slaves are escorted to our base in the forest near the capital, the non-elves will have most of their injuries treated, and then given some money to live on their own, of course, we treat them with high caution, wearing masks and stuff, as to not leak out our identity as elves.

Their injuries will be treated as well, and then there will be a regular convoy going from the kingdom to the secret base for them to get on and go back to our country.

Now then, the only thing left is the Marquis.

I walk down to the basement again, moving the man with telekinesis, and head to our car.

After dumping him in the car trunk and freezing him again just for sure, I help the members with moving the slaves. Fortunately, the other car we had was a half-truck, but we had to put an illusion on the slaves to make them invisible anyway.

Now sitting silently in the car, I can vividly remember the feeling of shooting those guys... It's... Disturbing. I am feeling slightly nauseous now, I think, my hands are also shaking a little bit. I don't like that feeling, but I will have to experience it again, I can't forgive those trash, this is probably the first time in a while since I've been this mad.

''...Hahh...'' I unknowingly sigh.

Suddenly, I can feel arms wrapping around my body from both sides. Emy and Liana are hugging me, patting my back.

...Right, this is why having people you can rely on is important.

''Thanks.''

After dropping off the rescued people at the base, quite a lot of them thanked us for saving them. The others seem grateful as well. I hope they can live better from now on.

Anyway, now back at the residence, the other team which Isabella leads has also successfully rescued the slaves, they just came back after dropping them to the base like us. Apparently, that side had even more slaves, almost 20 of them, that mansion was being used as a 'training' facility for slaves before they got to the main mansion, according to the information they told us.

We decided that the Marquis can't be forgiven anymore, if we release him now, there's still a chance of him being scared and not buying slaves anymore, but then he would leak out our gun usage, and that's not very desirable.

So, currently, the team is interrogating him to get more information. None of us three knows how to interrogate, so we're just sitting outside the room, waiting.

After a lot of screaming inside the room, the door opens, and Adam, who has blood splattered all over his clothes comes out.

''How is it?'' Isabella asks calmly.

''He has spilled everything, now he's begging to be killed.''

''If he got nothing else to say, then just kill him.''

''Yeah.''

''Now, let's go and talk about the information first.''

Sitting in the meeting room with Adam and Isabella, we are discussing what the Marquis said.

''A Duke, huh...'' Liana frowns.

''It will be annoying for sure, the opponent himself is a Swordmaster after all.'' Isabella says with a sigh.

''...Hmm...''

So apparently a freaking Duke is a big fan of collecting slaves, he's been doing it with the Marquis for a while now. And according to the late Marquis, he's even worse than himself.

We can't just leave this man alone. But he's a 2-star Swordmaster. If the three of us gang up on him, then we could win somehow, but he also has a lot of bodyguards... This is annoying.

''Any idea, Sylvia?'' Liana asks.

''How about... I snipe him from a distance while he's sleeping?''

''That... Could work, actually, then we'll only need to worry about the ones guarding the slaves.'' Isabella ponders.

''Hmm, how about this-

In the end, we decided to do a raid after a few more days, mainly because we didn't have much information about our opponent. We need to verify what the late guy said first.

The core of the plan is for me to use the Hecate II to snipe the Duke while he's sleeping, hopefully killing him in one shot, and then the team will go in and rescue the slaves. 

Once we remove the only real threat which is the Swordmaster, Liana, and Emy can take care of the rest, I will provide long-range support after that as well.

But for now, we have a few days to rest.

Going back to our room, we take a bath together, then we have dinner, and very rarely, we just sleep peacefully like normal people, instead of doing the exercise.

The next day, however, Emy and Liana wake up with two huge boners, so I have to take care of them before going to the academy.

We're still wearing T-shirts today, just different colors, all to make a statement about the academy's terrible uniform.

Opening the door to the classroom, this time we're not late anymore, but the classroom is still the same as the first day.

We walk to our seats like normal and greet Christina, who's been there before us.

''What were you guys doing yesterday?'' She asks curiously.

Hmm, I have to come up with an excuse here, can't just say I killed one of your nobles.

When I'm about to spit out some random bullshit, Liana comes behind me and pushes me towards Christina, my breasts almost touching Christina's face, who is still sitting.

''What?'' I turn around, confused.

''H-Huh?'' Christina is the same as me, it seems.

Liana looks around a bit, then proceeds to grab the collar of my white T-shirt and pull them down all the way until almost all of my breasts are visible, only the lower half of them covered by the bra, revealing the numerous bite marks and hickeys on the upper side.

Both of our eyes widen at the same time, I hastily pull the collar up and glare at Liana.

''Heh.''

She gives me a wink while smiling.

''...I will remember this.'' I tell Liana, to which her face turns blue almost immediately.

Christina seems dumbfounded, after a bit, her window successfully rebooted, and now she's very pissed, it seems.

''...Well played, Raeliana, you got me this time.'' Christina says, veins appearing on her forehead, her eyes burning.

This is not good, I can't have them fight like this, Liana is going to continue bullying Christina.

I walk closer to Christina, then use my arms to pull her face towards my chest, effectively burying her face in my breasts, my right hand stroking her head. She loved this the last time, so I hope this can appeal to her just a bit.

''...'' 

Christina keeps silent for a while, then she hooks her arms around my waist to hug me tighter.

Phew... I dodged a bullet there, maybe I should do this the next time she gets ma-

Ouch! Why are you biting me?!

I hurriedly release my hands from her head, but she doesn't let me go and continues to bite my breasts for a while. Liana is just chuckling from the side, while Emy is eating some egg tarts that I don't remember seeing earlier while looking at us.

I had to put a sound barrier around us to prevent my voice from escaping, this girl is so bold!

''Mgm...''

Finally, after 2 minutes, she releases her hands, now our faces are a bit flushed, but at least she seems to have cooled down.

I use wind magic to dry my T-shirt and look at Christina in her eyes. ''Please don't do this again, we're in class.''

''So that means I can do it in private?'' She replies, smiling dangerously.

Why do I always feel like this when she's doing that face...

''N-No, not... Yet.''

DING

''Ah! It seems like the class has started.'' I run back to my seat.

That was dangerous.

Orange cats.

They're a mystery.

Some say that they're very aggressive towards others. Some say that they're very warm and friendly.

Personally, I don't really care. I love every cat, they're all beautiful. But I also like orange as a color, so maybe I like orange cats a little bit more.

In my past life, I practically lived in the hospital, so I didn't have the chance to actually own a cat.

But I'm also very reluctant to own one in this life. Mainly because I'm scared of when it would die. It's sad, and I don't want it.

I mean, sure, if I go to the Infinite Range—the mountain range where the dragons live, and then somehow yoink the blood of an intelligent dragon, I can extend the lifespan of my cat, but I can't do that just yet.

If you ask if that's overkill or not, using dragon's blood for a pet cat, I'd say your question is worthless. Of course, it is not overkill.

But still, there's an alternative.

A cat girl.

By combining the charms of a girl and the cuteness of a cat, we get a holy amalgamation of excessive overloading adorableness and sweetness.

A holy cat, if you will.

Coincidentally, there's one in front of us right now. She's a divine cat, literally.

''-So, that's why they say mother goddess was the one who gave life to us, and we-''

And we're getting a lecture about how great the goddess is, I feel like I'm about to be tricked into joining a pyramid scheme at this point.

To understand what in the hell happened, we need to go back to the beginning of the class today.

Ah~ That was embarrassing. I get shudders every time Christina looks at me with those obsessive eyes. It's... the same feeling I got when Emy and Liana were doing it with me.

...Am I into obsessive girls...?

...Let's not think too much about it.

Now that I think about it, I don't see the delinquent dude who got destroyed by Liana the other day anywhere, and the cat girl as well.

Ah, here's the professor. It's mana control class again. Welp, poor professor, almost all of her students are not even listening.

There are only 4 or 5 students who are actually taking notes and paying attention.

But regardless, I can't really get anything from this either, let's do something else instead. 

So I turn to Emy's direction and ask the three girls who look like they're bored out of their minds. ''Hey, do you guys wanna do something else?''

All three of them almost simultaneously give me a nod.

So we go out of the classroom, and it seems like Christina is still pretty mad, because she challenges Liana to a match.

And now, they're fighting at the sparring area. I'm sitting on Emy's lap watching them.

It's a fight between scythe and spear, unusual, if you ask me.

''What's wrong, Princess? You won't be able to be with Sylvie if you're this weak!'' Liana sneers after parrying Christina's stab with the scythe.

''Tch!'' Christina charges in again, this time doing wide slashes from all angles.

However, Christina is only a 2-star Advance, while Liana is bordering master level already, her strikes are easily parried by Liana.

This sequence repeats for a while more. Ah... This is just Liana toying with Christina.

Well, aside from that, there's also the cat girl here, which now that I think about it, is pretty reasonable. Divine magic, which the cat girl uses, is categorically a type of magic, but in actuality, it is a whole different kind of energy.

Therefore, the mana control class is pretty useless for her, probably why she did hot pot the other day. Anyhow, besides healing, divine magic can be used to create barriers as well. Although not as strong as mana-base barriers, they are apparently more flexible, that's why a lot of priests coat their hands and feet with divine barriers and practice martial arts for close combat.

Just like the orange cat girl over there, she's doing some kind of martial arts with her arms and legs glowing yellow.

That looks pretty cool, actually, a priest who gets physical when dealing with enemies.

Turning my head backward, I can see Emy looking at the cat girl as well. She then notices me and kisses me on the forehead. Ah~ Cuddling like this is so good.

''Argh!'' I hear Christina moan in pain.

Turning back to the two, Christina is barely standing, leaning on her spear, while Liana is still pretty much fine.

''Get some healing, then we can go again.'' Liana says.

''...Fine.''

Then Christina limps to the cat girl and asks her for some healing. We decided that it would be fine to fight moderately seriously because of the girl's presence here. Liana asked her beforehand as well.

Immediately after the treatment is done, Christina goes right back to attacking Liana, to which Liana accepts readily, it looks like Liana wants to train Christina, somehow.

The cat girl looks at the two fighting for a minute, then she walks to us.

''Why is the princess so agitated?'' She asks, fanning her sweaty face.

''Ah~ It's complicated, but you can think of it as Liana over there pranked her.'' I reply, using magic to blow some cold air on her.

''Thanks!'' She says cheerfully.

''No problem, what's your name?''

''Mine is Anastasia, what about you guys?''

''I'm Sylvia, this one behind me is Emilia.''

''Nice to meet you!'' Anastasia smiles broadly and sits down beside us on the bench.

This girl is so sweet.

''Yeah, nice to meet you too.''

''Right, but... You guys are so strong, are you actually like, 100 years old or something?''

''Nah, we're just around your age.''

Anastasia widens her eyes. ''Really?!''

''Yeah.''

''I'm jealous... I wish I had that kind of power too...''

''Well? What do you need more power for?"

Anastasia grimaces. ''Mhmm, actually, our cat-kin clan was attacked by dragons. Our territory is near the Infinite Range, you see. I want to be stronger to protect my clan.''

''What... This is the first time I heard about that. Is there any reason why they attacked your clan?''

''Well... We never really knew why they attacked us out of all people either.''

''That's rough.''

''But now I can get stronger!'' She suddenly brightens up, her azure eyes sparkling. ''I was just a powerless girl back then, but Mother Goddess gave me power! If I keep training and worshipping mother goddess, I can get stronger and protect my clan!''

''I'm infinitely grateful to her!'' She continues excitedly, I don't have a good feeling about this. ''You know mother goddess Eva, right?!''

''Y-Yeah?''

I do, I met her 18 years ago, she's pretty chill, actually, we're now chatting buddies as well, occasionally sharing our thoughts about films and such.

''They say that she was the one who erased the demons and gave life to our species back in ancient times, since then, she even sent her apostles down here to help us fight against the invading demon forces!''

''By apostles, you mean Saints?''

''Yes! I would love to serve a Saint someday!''

''Heh~ That's admirable.'' I'm excited, are you telling me I'll get a cute cat girl to help me in the future? Hell yeah!

''Um! So, about the goddess-'' 

Eh?

In the end, we got lectured about the goddess for a whole 10 minutes, then Liana came back carrying Christina, who's very tired. Finally, we got out of that.

This scene right now is pretty weird, I'd say, we have Christina resting her head on my lap while getting treated by Anastasia, and I am still sitting on Emy's lap, Liana is using water magic to clean herself.

Although she only got a few scratches, she used quite a lot of stamina, it seems. And she loves being clean, so.

I used magic to clean Christina off her blood and sweat as well.

''Phew~'' Anastasia sighs after healing Christina and Liana.

After that, I introduced Anastasia to both of them, and we are now just chatting normally.

Until we notice two students walking in the distance, one of them is a man with black hair and an annoyed face. The other one is a girl walking behind him, bowing her head, looking very submissive and pitiful.

''...Tch, that's the son of Duke Forbes.'' Christina says with a deep frown.

Duke Forbes... That's our next target.

...Don't tell me... That girl is a slave?